Kali Audio IN5-5" Active Studio Monitor, Black (Single Unit)

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These compact monitors from new company Kali Audio strike an enticing balance between performance and affordability." - Sound on Sound Do we recommend it? A little like the IN-8’s themselves, WS-12 is overkill if your studio is small – this thing is huge – but it is a great option for bass producers. Also delivered with IN-8s was the new WS-12 subwoofer. These types of speaker are designed to deliver more lower frequency detail, not, it must be said, more bass; they should simply give you a more accurate representation of what you already have. It also means that the midrange needs to stay still. In many other co-axial or concentric systems, high excursion from the larger driver causes intermodulation distortion, and degrades the accuracy of the system. The midrange on the IN-Series is limited to less than 1 millimeter peak-to-peak excursion, making it acoustically stationary while still providing midrange to keep up with the powerful woofer and tweeter. Specifications

The IN-Series solves this problem. The tweeter and midrange share an acoustic center, and the woofer is crossed over at a low-mid frequency, so the distance between the woofer and midrange is well under a quarter wavelength at the crossover point. This means that each IN-Series monitor is acoustically a point source. As such, it has the same excellent directivity that the LP-6 and LP-8 have at their sides in a full 360 degrees around the speaker. You’re hearing all of the spatial information at the listening position, so the soundstage that you hear will have every detail that’s present in the mix. Clarity Founded by some former JBL staff, Kali arrived on the scene in 2018 with a range of inexpensive US‑designed and Far East‑manufactured monitors. It’s been an impressive effort so far. The subject of this review is the first of what Kali have christened their ‘second wave’, characterised by a host of technical improvements. These are said to comprise 12dB less amplifier noise, re‑profiled and lower‑mass driver diaphragms, improved cabinet construction, more precise DSP, revised EQ presets and, finally, a little less input sensitivity. The first of these improvements is particularly welcome because one of my criticisms of the IN‑8 was that amplifier hiss was audible. I may as well confirm straight away that this problem has been fixed. The IN‑5 is effectively silent when idling. Let’s Get PhysicalFirst off, hello ASR! I am humbled to be a new member to explore and learn more about the world of audio that we all so dearly love! The coaxial design of the IN-5’s mids driver and tweeter is what makes this monitor special. Essentially, all material above the 280Hz crossover frequency emanates from the same point source. This works wonders for phase coherency in a crucial chunk of the frequency spectrum, which in turn dramatically improves spatial imaging accuracy. The Industry Standard Kali Linux is not about its tools, nor the operating system. Kali Linux is a platform. The only issue here was that we weren’t expecting this euphoric moment as these speakers come in at half the price of our reference monitors. At best we were expecting them to hopefully match the response of the more expensive speakers; instead they gave us that ‘wow’ moment anyway.

In all our years testing monitors there is really no better feeling than playing a mix you have been working on through better monitors; just hearing the clarity, the extra width and extra dynamic range.Kali’s IN-Series monitors are some of the most innovative studio monitors ever made. Combining the natural advantages of a 3-way design with hyper-realistic imaging of a co-axial mid-range and tweeter, they offer more transparency, lower distortion, and a soundstage that must be heard to be believed. Performance - Unrivaled Punch and Detail. Diagram 3: An on‑axis and 20‑degree off‑axis measurement of the IN‑5 (blue and green traces, respectively). In Norah Jones’ Tell Yer Mama, the left singer was very distinct; moreso than in most other speakers I have auditioned. Not only does this allow producers to create interesting spatial effects, but it means that you can work faster and with more confidence. An accurate soundstage lets you “see” each element of the mix in front of you, so you can hear exactly what happens when you make changes.

Not really concrete on if I actually want a 5 inch monitor or 7 inch but I'm pretty sure whichever I consider, from the help & advice you guys give, I can use with either platform. I've had HS7's in the past just to let you guys know. The front port means you have more ability to move these speakers in to the prime spot for your needs. And thanks to the dip switches you have more ability to place the speakers where you need; whether free standing, near a wall or on a console. If you are looking for speakers for home theater or high-volume listening in a farfield situation like a living room or media room, these speakers are not recommended. These are designed for nearfield listening; the manual states the recommended listening range at 1 to 2 meters and most engineers mix in the 80-85dB range. As you can see in my frequency response linearity testing, the output is limited (via internal DSP) somewhere above the 96dB @ 1m output level. This is purposely designed to protect the speakers from being overdriven and thanks to this, they are indeed best served at moderate volumes and/or nearfield listening. The IN-5 sounds very neutral, which is obviously always the goal for any studio monitor, but it’s genuinely difficult to assign it a tonal character. And this is the struggle of reviewing studio monitors – using all manner of adjectives to ultimately describe the absence of attributes more than the presence of them. Is the IN-5 bassy? Not really, but low end is portrayed well enough to make mix decisions. Is it bright? Not without the HF boost, and even then trebles aren’t shrill. Muddy? The low mids are quite clean actually. Piercing? How about ‘smooth’. Fatiguing? I’ve sat through five-hour mixing and listening sessions without batting an eyelid. On the market for something that has clarity in all freq. ranges + an accurate and tight bass response that is just enough for mixing and mastering purposes.

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It also means that the midrange needs to stay still. In many other co-axial or concentric systems, high excursion from the larger driver causes intermodulation distortion, and degrades the accuracy of the system. The midrange on the IN-Series is limited to less than 1 millimeter peak-to-peak excursion, making it acoustically stationary while still providing midrange to keep up with the powerful woofer and tweeter. Taking up the space in between in the hero of the IN-Series: the 4-Inch, profile-optimized midrange driver. This driver has a lot of work to do. In addition to reproducing midrange frequencies, it also acts as the waveguide for the tweeter. This means that the shape needed to be precisely engineered to provide an ideal dispersion characteristic for the tweeter. Kalis products are designed and engineered in California, and each of our product lines is named after a town or city in California. Lone Pine, our debut line of studio monitors, gets its name from a town in the Eastern Sierra from which climbers disembark to summit Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48 states. Much like this climb, we felt that our debut line was ambitious, challenging, and a little risky. Mountain View, an accessory for connecting Bluetooth devices with professional audio systems, was named after the town in which several large tech companies, including Google, are headquartered. As these companies insist on removing physical audio connectors from their devices, we thought this name would be a fun way to put them on notice. A version of Kali is always close to you, no matter where you need it. Mobile devices, Containers, ARM, Cloud providers, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Pre-built Virtual Machine, Installer Images, and others are all available. Diagram 1: A close‑mic measurement of the IN‑5 bass driver, revealing a port tuning frequency of around 43Hz.